It was for the BNP leaders “a strategy” of filing multiple sets of nomination papers to cover the contingency of rejections. This came in the way of 141 party nominees out of 696 who had applied to the EC for a go-ahead.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, one of the founders of Awami Muslim League (now Awami League), chief minister of undivided Bengal, former prime minister of Pakistan and one in our pantheon of “National Leaders” was once quoted as saying, “Bad election is better than no election.

What with difficult-to-deal-with Mr Trump on one side and “revanchist” Mr Putin on the other, the world seems to be in a turbulent place right now. It appears others in the world arena are also queuing up to join this disarray to make matters worse for years to come.

Getting rid of a high-profile dissenter of any powerful government is almost invariably “surrounded by mysterious circumstances.” The reported murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Riyadh government, last week inside his own country's consulate in Istanbul is no exception.

Try as we might to reconcile the two trends in Bangladesh's development story, one consistently positive and the other indicative of a lack of distributive justice, we may fail to make the pieces of the puzzle fit, and therefore, marvel at it as a “miracle” development.

Do we see any spring on the feet of politicians of all hues in anticipation of the approaching general election? Not quite because the deck is yet to be cleared for a credible election, a far cry from the January 5, 2014 polls!

In the past we have been painfully aware of the interminable waves of persecution of Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine state in Myanmar and the consequent foisting of an increasing refugee burden on Bangladesh. But now, nobody is left in any doubt about the intractability of the problem:

Not even a month has passed since the eye-opening teenagers' agitation for road safety, here we are today quizzed by an unpalatable question: Are we more accident-prone now than we were before the stirring event of early August? It appears we are!

Tit-for-tat goes on between the US and Turkey with surprising frequency and fury. Ankara has declared a “boycott” of all electronic goods from the US. This is in retaliation—of a narrower calibration—to Washington having doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Turkey.

This is entitled not to a freaky triumphalism but to a celebration of human compassion for the collective risk to lives on roads. This found a powerful utterance and demonstration through our tender-aged progeny's intelligent intervention for a few days.

Dhaka, once the Venice of the East by virtue of being surrounded by four ebullient rivers, is now an urban behemoth. In our university days, going home on a long vacation, we would be literally pining for Dhaka after a couple of weeks of sojourn with parents.

Last week has been a happening spell, in an untoward sense, for the public health landscape. From Chittagong to Khulna to Rangpur, a litany of serious lapses, irregularities and unauthorised hospital activities has come to light.

A three-man BNP delegation's visit to New Delhi on June 3-10 has raised more questions than provided answers for. This trip was led by Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, member of BNP National Standing Committee; Abdul Awal Mintoo, the party's vice chairman; and Humayan Kabir, its international affairs secretary.

Sir Winston Churchill, with his superbly imaginative and insightful mind, once said something like this: “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.” That means use vitriol, threats, intimidation, even go eye-ball to eye-ball if you must, but do your utmost to stay away from war.

The US President Donald Trump in a dramatic move has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal ahead of the deadline set for May 12. True to his hell-bent attitude to abandon the deal spearheaded by his predecessor Obama, he has given another proof of an impulsive action distancing himself from a multilateral approach to romp on to an isolationist trajectory.

We are skating on thin ice as far as our participation in the IPL goes. That is the way we feel—both in terms of representation on the circuit and inclusion in the playing 11 on given days. Speaking of representation, only Shakib and Mustafizur Rahman were chosen from Bangladesh to play in the 11th edition of the glamorous and cash-awash Indian Premier League (IPL) out of six originally making it to the auction list. Four players from Afghanistan were picked from 10 having been put on auction. One has been taken ill leaving three Afghans playing now.

All hell broke loose over the British government! It found itself in the eye of a storm following a self- inflicted controversy raging over what is called the “Windrush generation”. “Windrush” is the name of a ship that had brought thousands of Caribbean people to Great Britain in 1948 to help rebuild the war-ravaged country.

JUST how anarchic the transport sector has become is graphically illustrated by the following instances: In the first place, after having severed Rajib's hand, the beastly bus broke the spine of a housewife near New Market; and grievously wounded a girl's leg as if on a serial damaging spree. Secondly, last Tuesday morning, a collision between a bus and a lorry on Dhaka-Khulna highway, severed a transport worker's hand from his body!

This is ironic and self-contradictory on the face of it. On the one hand, you read in the paper an eight-part series on mostly dead or moribund rivers all over the country—700 in total, of which 54 are trans-boundary rivers. On the other, you get to hear of Bangladeshi experts preparing to impart their knowledge of rivers to the Bihar state government!

As BNP's leadership keeps moving the higher courts to get bail for Khaleda Zia, an accused in the Zia Orphanage case, and trundles along the corridors of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) for permission to hold a public rally, the ruling party keeps a stoic distance.